Double Date!

[dean_wales]

Hi guys,

The mrs is away so I thought I would try and do two 6 Gallon brews in one day. See my my post in the main forum as to why it didnt go too well when we came to pitching the yeast. But here is the days events anyway...

As per photos below, gravities again needed some slight tweaking with water but seemed to come out OK. I had a horrendous stuck mash with the Wit as I kind of expected. Thats even with my new uber false bottom and over heated sparge water. Personally I wont do a wit again without plenty of oat or rice husks to keep things moving.

My final runnings seemed to be very high in gravity, I have never checked them before and find this confusing.

Initial impressions of the ESB are very impressive. Lovely taste looks and aroma - one reciepe to keep thats for sure.

The Wit has too much citrus zest in it, it tastes like orange flavoured beer at the moment but that might subside. The citrus combined with the acidulated malt and the slightly burnt coriander means it has a very astringent bite at the moment which I hope will recede, else it will be difficult to make the effort to bottle it.

Recipes were based on my Fuller's ESB and Hoegaarden clones. I then ammended them to make them more interesting by using lots of stuff up that needed using without drifiting to far from the style.

Dean's use-it-up ESB

Fermentables
Premiere Pilsner Malt - 1000 grams - 12.9%
Belgian Aromatic Malt - 250 grams - 3.2%
Pale Malt - 5500 grams - 71%
Wheat Malt - 250 grams - 3.2%
Torrefied Wheat - 250 grams - 3.2%
Crystal Malt - 400 grams - 5.2%
Crystal Malt, Dark - 100 grams - 1.3%

Hops
Challenger 90 mins 50 grams
Fuggle 15 mins 25 grams
Golding 10 mins 20 grams
Golding 0 mins 20 grams

Yeast: WLP002

Specifications:
Final Volume: 28 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.070
Final Gravity: 1.017
Alcohol Content: 6.9% ABV
Total Liquor: 41.6 Litres
Mash Liquor: 19.4 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 85 %
Bitterness: 35 IBU
Colour: 39 EBC

Summer Gaarden

Fermentables:
Premiere Pilsner Malt - 3000 grams - 41.1%
Flaked Wheat - 3000 grams - 41.1%
Torrifed Wheat - 750 grams - 10.3%
Acidulated Malt - 300 grams - 4.1%
Oat Flakes - 250 grams - 3.4%

Hops:
Saaz 90 mins 80 grams
Coriander 10mins 15 grams (Roasted & Crushed)
Citrus Peel 10mins 50g (6 Oranges & 2 Limes)

Yeast: WLP400

Specification:
Final Volume: 28 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.056
Final Gravity: 1.013
Alcohol Content: 5.6% ABV
Total Liquor: 41.1 Litres
Mash Liquor: 19 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75%
Bitterness: 22 IBU
Colour: 5 EBC

I think I should point out that I used only organic peel and I think that others would be wise to do so when using the zest. The amount of waxes and crap they stick on citrus fruit is incredible. You dont want that in your brew and in my humble opinion the peel on the organic fruit is much more aromatic. But thats just me.

The ESB grain bill:


The Wit grain bill:


Minor water adjustments for the ESB:


Strike temperature for both:


Mash (start) temperature for both:



Improved sparge set up:


Sparging the ESB:


Sparging the Wit:


First and last runnings of ESB:


Why are the final runnings so high in gravity:


ESB Gravity:


Wit gravity (had to add water!):


My guess at citrus and coriander amounts (note only zest used):


Two FV's all finished and pitched:


You know things are bad if you start at lunch and are still brewing that night!

[WishboneBrewery]

Looks like fun to me, I've found so far that whenever I add a load of Flaked goods, Wheat or Barley, I get a really free mash run-off. I have not tried TMM's Flaked Wheat yet but it does look thinner flaked than the other flaked goods that I've brewed with. I'd assume that the thinner flaked would convert in the mash better but might also get gloopy easier.

I'll definitely be making another Wit and other beers with a large proportion of Flaked Wheat.

Great Photos

[dean_wales]

Just to update on things here...

The Wit has been fermenting for a week and a half now and still only down to 1.019 even though its been spraying froth out of the blow off like a wrong 'un. My fault for overfilling the FV - it needs loads of headroom.

The ESB started more gently than the wit but raced down to the target FG within days. I gave it a week to properly finish and now its in the fridge crash cooling for a couple of days before bottling.

Taste wise:

The ESB tastes very very promising. Its similar to my Fullers clone but the wheat malt and aromatic malt definately bring something to the party. From experience I know that this beer will need at least 8 weeks conditioning before its at its best.

Thew Wit is a funny one. Its not Hoegaarden but its in the ball park. The residual sweetness at the moment makes it hard to judge but it is definately slightly darker or browner in colour, which I dont understand as the grist ingredients were meant to be bang on. Bitterness is about right but it lacks a refined crispness at the moment but time will tell. There is a definate funk to it from either the acid malt or yeast.

Its all a lerning curve!

I am half way through prepping the bottles two six gallon batches is 104 bottles or thereabouts! All to be soaked, delabled, washed, rinsed, drained and sanitised one by one. Grrrr....

Dean.

[simple one]

What was your total efficiency for the ESB?

[dean_wales]

Will check my stats and get back to you on efficiency. Just had a cheeky first taste of an ESB bottle, the half filled dregs one at room temp - its not ready yet! Very sweet and cloudy patience is not my virtue!

Need to bottle the wit over the next day or two becuase the colour and flavour have settled down now. Just need to decide on how high a carbonation level to go for. The funkyness is not unpleasant but pronounced, it definately not a ho' though, too much flavour!

Dean.

[coatesg]

Did you make a starter with the WLP400? Would have expected it to have finished much lower than 1.019 in 11 days.

[greenxpaddy]

To answer a couple of your q's.

For a 7.5kg grain bill I would have 42 litres of liquor. Are you sure you definitely used 41l? I am certain your last runnings were too high gravity because your grain bill was too big for the batch. How much did you have to boil? From 42l liquor I would be expecting a boil size of around 37l

The darkness is wholly attributed to the malt you have used. Premiere is 3-5 EBC. If you had used DIngemans Pilsener Malt at 2.8 it would have been lighter. The other thing is torrified wheat EBC 3.0 isn't the same as flaked/crushed/cracked wheat which has EBC of 0. All my wheat I mill myself and get a perfect mash and OG. To be honest the graininess of a cracked wheat also helps prevent a stuck mash as the particles will not stick together but form a coarse sand-like bed. If flaked wheat is a high part of the recipe this lower EBC makes a huge difference in the end colour

I am certain Hooegaarden uses a very low % of malted grain which is not feasible for the home brewer. Although I am trying every time to get there!

Post up a pic of the finished article